Contents

Plot

When the bell rang, it was the end of the first day of school. All of the students ran out of every classroom, except for Room 13. Mr. Ratburn's third grade class filed out of the classroom in alphabetical order. Mr. Ratburn said that he will see his class tomorrow. Arthur Read, Buster Baxter, Francine Frensky, Muffy Crosswire, the Brain, Binky Barnes, and some others were Mr. Ratburn's students. In the hallway, they run into Prunella Deegan who is in the fourth grade, and she tells them she had Mr. Ratburn when she was in the third grade, and that she fears something terrible might happen to them. Binky claims that one wrong move would cause Mr. Ratburn to put the students on death row, and another boy named Chris claims that Mr. Ratburn is a vampire with magical powers.

While everyone was leaving, the principal, Mr. Haney was asking the students if they were ready for the September spellathon, and everyone cheered "Yes!". Then Mr. Haney asks who is going to win, and the students all say that they're all going to win. Prunella then asks that if she wins again, she might get her name on the trophy twice.

When Arthur came home from school, he tells his mother, Jane, that he has the strictest teacher in the whole world, Mr. Ratburn. Jane suggests that Arthur could have a chocolate chip cookie, but he responds that he doesn't have time for a cookie and that he has a lot of homework to do. His sister, D.W. decides to eat a cookie, and says that she doesn't have homework, but he tells her she doesn't go to school.

After dinner, Arthur was still working on his homework. While Arthur is doing a project made out of cookie dough, D.W. asks him what it is, and he responds that it is a map of Africa. D.W. suggests that it looks like pepperoni pizza. Then she tells Arthur that the next year when she goes into kindergarten, she won't have any homework, because a new possible teacher doesn't give homework. Arthur then calls Jane that D.W. is being a pest, but she responds by telling Arthur that it's time for bed and that he can finish the map of Africa in the morning, which she mistakenly calls it "Florida", and then Arthur corrects her mistake.

The next school day, Mr. Ratburn was announcing a spelling test for Friday. He tells the class to study hard, because the test will have 100 words. He then tells the students that the two of them with the highest scores will represent the class at the all-school spellathon. During the week, Arthur and his friends were studying harder than ever, and Arthur was searching for quiet places to study.

On Friday, Mr. Ratburn's class had a spelling test. Arthur could smell the popcorn coming from Miss Sweetwater's class, and he could hear Mrs. Fink's class leaving for a field trip to the aquarium. Arthur then whispers to Francine about why they were stuck with Mr. Ratburn. At the end of the spelling test, Mr. Ratburn corrected the students' papers, and points out that most of the students did well on the test, but only two of them spelled every word correctly. The selected class representatives were Arthur and the Brain, but Muffy suggests that there is a mistake. Then Mr. Ratburn gave Arthur and the Brain a complete list of words and promised them both to study and be ready for the spellathon that is in two weeks.

Arthur's family was helping him study, then his Grandma Thora asked Arthur his spelling words, and then his parents David and Jane asked him what to do by spelling them. When Francine and Buster came over, D.W. answered the door and told them that Arthur can't play, because he has to study.

When the spellathon came by, Arthur's family was wishing him a good luck. On the stage behind the curtains, Mr. Ratburn asked how Arthur and the Brain felt. The Brain replies saying he feels fine, but Arthur was nervous and wished he were still back in bed. Then Mr. Haney welcomed everyone and explained the rules in spelling. The Brain was the first person to have a turn, and he stepped up to the microphone. The first word was "fear", and the Brain quickly misspelled it as F-E-R-E and then Mr. Haney dismissed him, and then the Brain felt disbelief and asked Mr. Haney whether or not if he's using the right dictionary. However, many of the representatives from Miss Sweetwater's and Mrs. Fink's classes were quickly dismissed. The remaining representatives were Prunella and Arthur. During Prunella's turn, the word was "preparation", then she asked for the definition and Mr. Haney explained that the word means "the process of getting ready". Then Prunella began to spell the word starting with P-R-E-P, then pauses for a few seconds, then finishes spelling it E-R-A-T-I-O-N, and then gets dismissed. Then Arthur became the only one left in the spellathon. Then he spelled the word "preparation" as P-R-E-P-A-R-A-T-I-O-N, which is the correct spelling. Then Mr. Ratburn stepped up the microphone and told everyone that he is very proud of Arthur and the whole class. He then explains that it will be the last third grade he will have for the spellathon, and then decides his new challenge will be teaching kindergarten, which worries D.W., as she thinks she might get too much homework to do at her age if she gets sorted into his class.

A boy named Chris, one of the fourth graders introduced in this book, never appeared again in the later books or made it onto the television series.

The book is also translated in other languages, including Spanish, under the name "Arturo y sus problemas con el profesor".

On the back of the book at the beginning of the random letters it will spell "RATBURN."

Adaptations

Arthur's Teacher Trouble was adapted into a Living Books computer game by Brøderbund for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh in 1993. However, it was re-released a number of times to become compatible with the later operating systems such as Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9, and etc. Many of these games also included a book in the packaging. However, in the game, there were many color tone restrictions where many of the characters had their complexions restricted between pale and tan. However, some pages were based on more than just one page, and some of the text was omitted, modified, or only heard during a following of sequences. There were many things that could be clicked on and performed that never happened in the book. Also, on the page where Arthur is doing a project of Africa out of cookie dough, he is wearing blue pajamas like the later books where he was wearing white and blue striped pajamas, although his pajamas were previously yellow and red striped. The publisher, Brøderbund was acquired by The Learning Company in 2003, which set for a discontinuation of the Living Books series.

This book became adapted into Episode 2 of Season 1 with two segments, Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn and Arthur's Spelling Trubble. However, in the home video versions of Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn, it was titled as Arthur's Teacher Trouble (not to be confused with the book with the similar storyline).

Goofs

Despite the story saying Mr. Ratburn's class filed out slowly in alphabetical order, the Brain and Buster were behind Francine, and Arthur was ahead of Alan (The Brain). This goof is likely due to the fact that Arthur is the titular character in the series.

When Arthur came home on the first day of school, he was writing with his left hand; but on the later pages, he was writing with his right hand.